Briefcase is a Windows 95 application for keeping files up to date when you
have your laptop away from the office. In the spirit of cross-platform
compatibility, Microsoft has now added this functionality in Windows NT 4.0.
My first reaction is some surprise. Briefcase is for users who are away from
their networks. One area where Windows 95 still scores heavily over Windows NT
4.0 is in laptop support for such features as hot-plugging PC Card (formerly
PCMCIA) and power management. Nevertheless, many users want NT on a laptop, and
file synchronization is a big issue.
The basic concept is to create a special area where you can place copies of
files. When you're away from the office, you work on the copies. When you get
back, the Briefcase checks whether your files are the same as those on the
network. If you've changed them, Briefcase can update the network copy. If the
network has a newer version, Briefcase can bring the updated data down to your
machine. If changes have occurred at both ends, Briefcase can offer a
conflict-resolution schema.
Briefcase in Operation
Let's see how Briefcase works. You open "My Briefcase"--the
default object name--from the desktop. Then suppose you create a new Word
document called "Word Document" in a folder called "Source
Documents." Screen 1 shows how easy Briefcase setup is.
Once you store the file copy in the Briefcase, you can leave the office.
The Briefcase time stamps both the copy and the source. Away from the office,
you change the file stored in the Briefcase. Because you're not connected to the
network server, you can't change the master version.
If you change the document on your laptop, My Briefcase reflects that fact
when you select View Refresh. The Status field changes to "Needs updating,"
indicating that the copy in your Briefcase is out of synch with the last known
copy on the server. More accurately, the change in your copy's Modified Date
reflects that changes have occurred.
Resynchronizing the file is also easy. When you're back in the office, just
reconnect to the relevant servers and select Briefcase Update All.
A dialog appears that shows the status of the changes. The simplest option,
which screen 2 illustrates, is to change the copy on the laptop, so the server
copy remains untouched. The dialog tells you the Briefcase version is more
recent than the network version and suggests replacing the original with the
working copy in the Briefcase to synchronize the two.
If the server copy changed while you were away from the network and your
Briefcase copy remained untouched, you get the other version of this dialog. It
tells you to copy the file to the Briefcase, as you see in screen 3.
No Conflict Resolution
These two scenarios are straightforward. Briefcase detects a change in the
date on either side and makes the appropriate suggestion.
But what happens if you make changes, and changes occur on the
network? Because both sides of the equation have changed, Briefcase asks you to
choose manually. The default setting is "skip," meaning that you don't
want to update one version automatically. Screen 4 shows this setting. Two other
options are the replace options already mentioned. As you can see, no conflict
resolution is built into the combination of Briefcase and Office 95, so the
combination's usefulness is blunted.